Episode 43: Peace Talks, Almost presents the situation on the frontlines as it stood in spring 1951, following some promising offensives by General Ridgeway which effectively crushed the Chinese capacity to launch another great offensive again. This incapacitation of the Chinese by no means meant that the communists were ready to roll over; indeed, the Chinese were still determined to hold on. As the allies crossed the 38th parallel for the second time, indeed, there was no genuine desire to push the envelope either, and to advance once more to the Yalu River. To have done so may well have escalated the situation, and caused the Chinese to declare an open war against the allies. Neither Washington nor its allies wanted this, but what the allies wanted above all was an end to the war after so many difficult months, and Washington was forced to listen to this request.

As certain initiatives were approached, the real star of the peace-making game loomed into view. The Indian delegation in the United Nations held influence among the third world delegations, and had been a convenient go-between with the Chinese and the West in years past. Now, Indian Prime Minister Nehru wished to bring an end to the Korean War through the auspices of the UN, either through its General Assembly or its Security Council, which India held a temporary seat in at this critical time. With high hopes, Nehru’s representatives in New York busied themselves throughout 1951, but it soon became clear that not even the Americans could be counted as reliable, in the strange game which was peace-making. With several twists and turns ahead, the Indians settled down into a long, arduous pressure campaign, just as the soldiers settled into the early phases of military stalemate.

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Music used:

“Alabama Red”, by Sidney Stripling, released in 1941, available: http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=82676 

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